For all the false talk about the burdens immigrants put on the US health care system, it is important to remember the other side of the story: Without foreign-born health workers, the US systems for medical and long-term care could, quite literally, collapse. GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump vows “the largest deportation operation in history” to say nothing of closing [...]
What role do family members play in caring for frail older adults and younger people with disabilities? What can society do to make it easier for them? I got thinking about this when Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance suggested that families could lower their daycare costs if “grandma and grandpa” took on more child care responsibility. Who Is Caring [...]
Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris is working hard to win the support of older voters, but what would she do to address their many concerns if she is elected president? In a campaign that has not yet shown many of its policy cards, Harris has offered only the roughest sketch of a governing agenda. But her time as vice president [...]
The idea that a simple blood can diagnose Alzheimer’s disease is getting an enormous amount of attention. And someday, these tests may have important benefits. But before you run to your doctor demanding a blood draw, keep in mind that this test has important limitations. Much of the buzz is over new research by Sebastian Palmqvist (paywall) of Lund University [...]
Politicians love to say they “won’t touch” Social Security, as if leaving the program alone will protect older adults. In reality, a new study by two of my Urban Institute colleagues finds that failing to fix the program’s looming financial shortfall would throw 3.8 million seniors into poverty by 2045. Median promised benefits would decline by $5,900 (in 2022 dollars). [...]
The Republican party platform, orchestrated by former President Trump, is filled with promises for those it calls “our Great Seniors.” But there is little or no real policy behind most of those campaign pledges. And the document is filled with many irreconcilable contradictions. The platform will be the GOP’s election-year policy framework coming out of its upcoming July 15-18 nominating [...]
Those online senior living referral services are getting a lot of attention these days. And not in a good way. The chairman of the US Senate Aging Committee has begun an investigation into assisted living referrals by A Place for Mom, one of the biggest commercial advice outfits. At the same time, more states are requiring firms to publicly disclose [...]
Between half and three-quarters of older adults are diagnosed with pre-diabetes. But what does it mean? And what should you do if you get such a diagnosis? Increasingly, many experts say older patients should not overreact. A diagnosis of pre-Type 2 diabetes often produces anxiety and confusion in seniors. It can lead to unnecessary tests and medications. And, if poorly [...]
We all know the population of older adults is growing rapidly. But we are aging in very different ways. And if we are going to reimagine medicine, caregiving, and government policy, it is important to better understand who older adults are and how they live. In its newest Profile of Older Americans, the federal Administration for Community Living paints a [...]
One of the many lessons we should have learned from the Covid-19 pandemic is the cost to older adults of loneliness and social isolation. While nearly 900,000 older adults died from the virus, tens of thousands were sickened and may have died from the isolation the pandemic caused. But what have we learned from that tragic experience? Whether older adults [...]